I have an old DNS-323 NAS and decided to upgrade it to a small Web/FTP server, thus I’ve decided to install debian on it. I’ve used the device for many years with D-LINK original firmware and “fun_plug” and I was very satisfied about it.

For a short period of time (due to a HDD failure) I’ve switched to “Alt-F” firmware, which, unlike “fun_plug”, is an alternative firmware and it replaces the original D-LINK firmware entirely. “Alt-F” can also coexist with “fun_plug” but it also have an interesting option, to install Debian, along “Alt-F”, and although you can’t use them both at the same time (you have to choose which one you start with) it’s a nice preview of what you may or may not do with Debian + DNS-323.

I strongly suggest to use the method I’ve just presented to you, Debian through Alt-F firmware, to see how Debian will act on DNS-323 (it has quite limited capabilities, with 64MB RAM and ~400MHz ARM CPU).

DNS-323 comes in 3 flavors, A1, B1, C1. A1 and B1 are best supported by Debian and you’ll find a few custom scripts across the internet to allow you to control the fan and LEDs. Unfortunately version C1 ( my version also 🙁 ) it’s not very well supported and although it’s possible to install Debian on it you’ll get stuck with the following annoyances:

Power LED will not stop flashing even after successful install;

reboot / shutdown from command line isn’t possible (it just hangs in there after dropping connection);

Fan will work at full speed and if it’s in the same room can be annoying.

2. Go to your administration page on the DNS-323 and install new firmware (netboot.img). I would recommend using Google Chrome, I’ve got some strange results with Firefox.

Click “Browse” and select “netboot.img” thent click “Apply”. If for some reason the update procedure is unsuccessful, DO NOT restart the device, just login again and repeat the update procedure again. When you receive “Update was successful..” message, you can click “Restart” under that message.

3. After restart, login to the installer:

ssh installer@192.168.10.100

replace “192.168.10.100” with your IP.

accept the warning about connecting to a new host.

installer username and password are user: installer and pass: install

if you restart the installer it will generate another id and you’ll need the delete the old one from your PC in order to reconnect:

ssh-keygen -f ".ssh/known_hosts" -R 192.168.10.100

you must open 2 sessions, in the first one choose “Start Shell”:

we open a shell window to the installer because, at least in my setup, the installer fails to update the UUID’s after creating new partitions and you will end up stuck at 33% on “Finishing installation…”. I had to find out this the hard way and my solution was to update those manually. Maybe at the time you read this post this bug will be solved and you won’t be needing the second session, but i suggest to keep it open just in case 🙂

now in the second session choose “Start installer”, and select your country, debian mirror of your choice and proxy server if it’s the case:

on the next screen you will choose packages to be downloaded for the installer.

For my setup, 2 x WD 1TB disks in RAID 1 (mirroring), I’ve chosen:

[*] md-modules-3.16.0-4-orion5x-di: RAID and LVM support
[*] partman-auto-raid: Allow preseeded RAID installs
[*] partman-ext3: Add to partman support for ext3 and ext4
[*] partman-md: Add to partman support for MD

as you can see the UUID’s are not the same and we need to update them manually, so I’ve did a little script to ease your work (use this only if you created software RAID as I did, else make the links manually)

One Comment

Hi!
During partitioning I got “Input/output error” immediately after I chose “Save Changes”. Before Debian install disks were alive. In logs I found following:
“/dev/sda: read failed after 0 of 4096 at 0: Input/output error”.